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Monday, December 15, 2008

And I saw an Angel flying in the midst of Heaven!

Moroni in the crate

Barbara and Elder Ard touching the Angel Moroni


Almost vertical

Up, up, he goes!

All lined up!

Wow, what an exciting day we have had here today. We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Angel Moroni and his placement on the spire of the Temple. Today it finally happened. At about 1:00 pm this afternoon, a Alloette helicopter arrived above the buildings and landed in the middle of the green in front of the manor house. They attached a large rope to the top of the angel and lifted him from the crate. He was suspended from the rope and lifted into the air. They flew across the grass and up, up, up into the air. It took about 10 minutes of delicate maneuvering for the helicopter to drop him carefully into the slot made just for him to balance and sit on. A great cheer came up from the large crowd as he was finally set into place. These saints here in England have waited a long time for Moroni to arrive, 50 years to be exact. We understand from what we have been told that the Church was turned down originally because of radar issues at Gatwick Airport. They reapplied recently and finally after an appeal, they received approval to put the Angel up on top of the 160 foot spire of the temple. He looks out to the East over the green, verdant fields of Southern England. Everyone here is so excited about the prospect of having this beautiful icon on the temple and overlooking the A22 as it runs right in front of the Temple property. It was quite a day with the national and local press here having a briefing in our Visitors' Centre. We hope many good things will come out of this event.

We are well here and keeping very busy as we approach the Christmas Season. We will be spending Christmas in London with our friends, the Perrys. We are looking forward to doing some small service projects for some of the good people that we have learned to love here in the past year. Hope this is a great holiday for all of you. We will miss seeing and visiting with you all. We think back on great memories of this time of the year with wonderful friends and family. We love you all. Love and best wishes.

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